Here at Gardeners Kitchen we are fully Pesticide and Organic Pesticide free on all of our products, which means we do not use any chemicals or pesticides on our plants in any way shape or form! (You could say it's better than 'Organic!') To help us prevent the outbreaks of any pests we may have pop up, we employ the help of the ''Good Bugs'' to eat the bad bugs and lay eggs to reproduce more good bugs and so on.

So Why Companion Planting?

'Companion planting' means you mix certain plants together and they help to ward off bad bugs or help to attract good ones to eat the bad ones, plus they can help to improve growth and flavours. This is a simple and cheap way in which your plants can carry on being 'Pesticide free' without having to result to pesticides. Plus combining your veg and herb garden will not only look amazing but the smells will be amazing to! Below is a list of plants that can be planted together and ones that dont get on.


Beetroot
Get on with Lettuce, Onions and Cabbages, Do not plant with French or Runner Beans or Tomatoes

Beans
Get on with Sunflowers, Cabbage, Cucumbers and Nasturtiums. Do not plant with the Alium family like Garlic, Leeks and Onions as this can stunt their growth. Why not try and grow climbling beans up sweetcorn this will attract beneficial bugs to ward off leaf hoppers. Plant Nasturtiums near beans to atract aphids away from your other crops. Plant sweet peas near Runner beans to atract the bees for polination.

Cabbages
Get on with Beetroot, Celery, Potatoes, Garlic and Onions, Do not plant with Tomatoes Peppers or Runner beans. - Plant sage among your cabbages this will help against cabbage moth.

Cauliflowers
Plant Celery near Cauliflowers to help ward off cabbage white butterfly. Cauliflowers dont do well with strawberries or tomatoes and wierdly even though they are from the same family they do not like to be planted near cabbages.

Carrots
Get on with Lettuce, Peas, Leeks and Onions. Do not plant with Strawberries, Fennel or Dill. Plant Leeks and Carrots together as they protect each other from carrot fly and leek moth.

Lettuce
Get on with Beans, Raddish and Carrots, Do not plant with Celery. Plant Chervil amongst your lettuce to ward off aphids

Leeks
Get on with Carrots, Lettuce, Beetroot and Cabbages. Do not plant with Peas or Beans. Plant Leeks and Carrots together as they protect each other from carrot fly and leek moth. Make sure you harvest the carrots before you start to mound the soil up on your leeks.

Peas
Get on with Carrots, Beetroot, Raddish and Beans, Do not plant with Onions Leeks or Garlic. Do not plant with any of the Aliums as this can stunt their growth.

Spinach
Leaf minor's love spinach and can cause a lot of damage, if you plant raddish amongst them this will atract them away from your spinach, but it wont spoil your raddish's.

Tomatoes
Get on with Onions, Carrots, Basil, Oregano. Do not plant with Potatoes, as they are from the same family and can easily spread blight. Plant Gardeners Kitchen Tagetes or some very smelly Marigolds around your tomatoes these will help to repel your Aphids.

Companion planting is the method of using Mother Nature to either ward off 'bad' bugs or encourage 'good' bugs to help benefit the plants and crops you are growing. Below are the herbs and flowers to use in your garden.


Borage
Plant with tomatoes and strawberries to increase growth and flavour. Borage flowers are not only edible they are great for atracting bees for polinating.

Garlic
Garlic is one of the plants that you should use as a dot plant round your garden. It gets on with most of your veggies apart from peas and beans as this will stunt there growth and some say not to put it with sage or parsley to. Garlic will repel aphids from your vegetables and do very well planted with Marigolds or Tagetes.

Marigold Pot Calendula
Not many bugs like this plant as they have tiny hairs all over their stems, which makes it hard for the bugs to walk across. They have stunning orangy/yellow flowers which will attract the beneficial bugs like Ladybirds Hoverflys and Lacewings which love Aphids! Dead head regulaly otherwise they will spread at a whoping rate!

Nasturtiums
Planted pretty much anywhere in your garden they will attract the apdids away from your veggies. Their pretty colourful flowers will attract the beneficial bugs in to eat them. If planted in your green house with your toms they ward off white fly.

Wormwood
Use as a dot plant around your garden to help attract Aphids and Flea beatles away from your veggies. Then their pretty yellow flowers will also attract beneficial bugs like Lacewings and Ladybirds to feed on what they attract! Clever plant!

Mint
Plant mint in pots and place around your veggies like your cabbages toms and carrots, this will repel flea beatles and ants hate it too.

Tagetes
Use as a dot plant all around your garden! They have brightly coloured flowers ranging from yellow/orange and red and have a very strong pungent smell. This smell helps to repel white fly and when planted near cabbages reduces the number of cabbage moth damage because they are unable to smell the cabbages. The flowers not only look great but they help attract the beneficial bugs like hoverfly’s which eat aphids.